Texas Regulator Tells Tesla He Will Subpoena Data Logs From Fatal Crash

It was no sooner than we wrote yesterday that Elon Musk had gone “all in” in insisting that a Tesla involved in a fatal Houston wreck didn’t have Autopilot turned on than Texas regulators have “called”. Now, we move to the showdown.

Texas police are going to be serving search warrants on Tesla to get the data involved in the fatal crash, Reuters reported late Monday. To matters even more interesting, Mark Herman, Harris County Constable Precinct 4, said he had already obtained witness statements indicating there was no one in the drivers’ seat prior to the wreck. 

“We have witness statements from people that said they left to test drive the vehicle without a driver and to show the friend how it can drive itself,” Herman said.

He also said that he had not seen the data that Musk claimed Tesla had sifted through: “If he is tweeting that out, if he has already pulled the data, he hasn’t told us that. We will eagerly wait for that data.”

On Monday, we reported about thje Tesla Model S wreck that killed two men when the vehicle with “no driver” slammed into a tree and caught fire. It appeared to be an obvious instance where Autopilot and/or Full Self Driving could and would be the “front and center” suspect for the wreck.

Then came what can only be described as either a baffling truth, or an all-in moment (as one Twitter user called it): Elon Musk took to Twitter Monday night to assert in a tweet that data logs “recovered so far” show Autopilot was not enabled in the car and that Full Self Driving had not been purchased on the vehicle.

Your research as a private individual is better than professionals @WSJ!

Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD.

Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2021

Leaving out the unknown of what “so far” means and how it basically negates Musk’s point, we pointed out that Musk’s Tweet was stunning for a couple of reasons:

1. The fact that nobody was in the driver seat of the car makes Autopilot the “Occam’s Razor” explanation for the wreck. The NY Times also wrote earlier in the day that the men in the vehicle had discussed Autopilot before leaving for their drive together, in addition to Herman’s witness statements. 
2. It comes off as a preemptive PR effort to potentially mitigate and/or influence the outcome of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s look into the wreck.
3. If it turns out that Autopilot was, in fact, off, the circumstances behind the wreck become even more baffling. But if it turns out that one of the regulators finds that Autopilot and/or FSD was on during (or seconds before) the wreck, Musk may need further PR efforts to repair the harm it could do to him and/or his brand. Several people on social media have brought this up:

Jason you are an enabler of Elon Musk’s lies and fraud.

The police are certain there was no one in the drivers seat of the car. The car crashed into a tree at a high speed. Who was driving the car?

Why couldn’t the occupants of the car get out of the 🚘 before or during the 🔥? https://t.co/kmuhqtWSF4

— JC Oviedo (@JCOviedo6) April 19, 2021

Additionally, it has already been noted that these type of preemptive suggestions prior to investigations are frowned upon by regulators:

Elon Musk’s claim that the car was not in Autopilot according to data “so far” comes independent of federal investigators, who bristle at these types of preemptive disclosures. NTSB booted Tesla from a previous investigation over this exact issue. https://t.co/ARjoO7siWQ

— Faiz Siddiqui (@faizsays) April 19, 2021

Recall, the Tesla slammed into a tree near Hammock Dunes Place in the Houston Area, a local NBC affiliate reported. The wreck was in the “Carlton Woods subdivision near the Woodlands,” the report says. According to authorities, “the vehicle failed to negotiate a cul-de-sac turn, ran off the road and hit the tree.”

Of the two occupants, one was seated in the passenger seat of the front of the car while the other was seated in the passenger seat of the back of the car. A reported 23,000 gallons of water needed to be used to extinguish the flames because the Tesla’s battery “kept reigniting”. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are aware of the fatal Tesla crash that killed two, which occurred on Saturday night in Spring, Texas. Both agencies are sending investigators to conduct a safety analysis. 

“NHTSA is aware of the tragic crash involving a Tesla vehicle outside of Houston, Texas. NHTSA has immediately launched a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash. We are actively engaged with local law enforcement and Tesla to learn more about the details of the crash and will take appropriate steps when we have more information,” the NHTSA told local news KHOU11 in a statement. 

And the NTSB tweeted Monday afternoon that their investigation team, “in coordination with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office,” will “conduct a safety investigation of the fatal Apr. 17, 2021, Tesla vehicle crash near Spring, TX.”

NTSB also said their “investigation would focus on the vehicle’s operation and the post-crash fire. NTSB investigators will arrive in the area later this afternoon.” 

Sitting across the table from regulators, Musk has once again pushed “all in”. So far, he has been able to defy the odds and suck out. Will that remain the case?

That tweet was an all-in move by Elon

— TC, Master of Chart (@TESLAcharts) April 19, 2021